CRAFT and ITC

CRAFT

Addiction is tough not just on your struggling son or daughter but on those who care for them, especially parents. Watching a child deteriorate from substance use is devastating.

Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT) and the Invitation to Change (ITC) approach have helped many families.

In addition to fear and despair, parents of those struggling with substance use often feel uncertainty: what can I do to help my child recover?

When a person is struggling with substance use, there are three immediate goals:

Get the loved one into a treatment program.
Reduce the use of alcohol or drug use, whether or not the loved one has engaged in treatment yet.
Improve the lives of the concerned family members and friends.

But what happens if a loved one refuses to enter a treatment center or get any other form of Help? How do we convince a person struggling with addiction to get treatment?

There is a successful program for family members and friends with treatment-resistant loved ones. It’s called CRAFT.

The Community Reinforcement and Family Training Approach (CRAFT) provides unique tools to promote change. It helps families address substance use problems collaboratively, practically, and respectfully.

“What’s amazing about CRAFT is we’re working with family members and practicing everything… So that way, when family members do go back to their homes, they have the skills … to kind of flip the script.” –Jessica Triplett

Why CRAFT and ITC?

CRAFT teaches self-management and how to engage with positivity, optimism, and compassion. These skills can shift relationship dynamics and motivate positive change.

Dr. Bob Meyers developed CRAFT at the University of New Mexico. The Center for Motivation and Change provides CRAFT resources and support for families.

CRAFT is one set of essential tools that DO work. Families that use these strategies get results and can feel hopeful again. They feel empowered and supported and learn to trust themselves again. They feel relief that they are getting their lives and their children’s lives back.

CRAFT is a set of very positive strategies. The approach can help you support your son or daughter, especially when they are unsure they want to change.

You learn new ways to interact with your loved one (positive communication skills). It doesn’t implicate or blame the family. Instead, it supports them as a positive force trying to deal with a complicated situation as best they can.

ITC Wheel

These approaches provide:

helpful ways of talking to your child so they are more likely to listen (what we call recognizing green lights and red lights)
ways of understanding what’s going on from your child’s perspective (what’s “in it for them”)
the importance of recognizing positive change when it happens
how to allow your son or daughter to learn from the natural consequences of their negative behaviors
how to take care of yourself in the process.

Kindness, collaboration, positive reinforcement, and appropriate limit-setting are all part of real change. And what is now known is that it works!

You can stay involved. You can help, and you can take care of yourself as well. This combination is powerful and effective in helping your child decide to make positive changes.

You can register for our Invitation to Change group here.

CRAFT and ITC books you may want to check out:

Get Your Loved One Sober: Alternatives to Nagging, Pleading, and Threatening:

Published in 2003, Get Your Loved One Sober describes Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT). The program uses scientifically validated behavioral principles to reduce the loved one’s substance use and encourage them to seek treatment.

Beyond Addiction: How Science and Kindness Help People Change:

Published in 2014, Beyond Addiction goes beyond the theatrics of interventions and tough love to show family and friends how they can use kindness, positive reinforcement, and motivational and behavioral strategies to help someone change.

The Parent’s 20 Minute Guide (Second Edition):

Published in 2016, The Parent’s 20 Minute Guide was developed by psychologists at the Center for Motivation and Change. This guide helps parents change their child’s substance use. There is a partner version as well.

The Invitation to Change – A Short Guide:

Published in 2021, The Invitation to Change Guide is a holistic helping framework based on science and kindness, designed for the families and loved ones of people struggling with substance use. You can learn more about Invitation to Change here. Please reach out if you are interested in being in an Invitation to Change parent group.

The Compassion Antidote: A Path to Change for You and Your Child Struggling with Substance Use:

Published in 2022, The Compassion Antidote offers a proven framework to help parents create change when their teen or young adult is struggling with substance use.

Research

Miller, Meyers, & Tonigan conducted a CRAFT alcohol study in 1999. 130 family members were randomly assigned to Al-Anon, Johnson Institute Therapy, or the Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT)

The outcomes of the study are as follows:

64.4% of the family members in the CRAFT group succeeded in motivating their loved ones to enter treatment.
22.5% of those in the intervention group were able to motivate their loved ones to enter treatment.
13.6% of those in the Al-Anon group were able to motivate their loved ones to enter treatment.

CRAFT articles and interviews:

CRAFT articles and resources

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